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I thought this would be an engaging discussion in which people from all nations will have opinions and reasons for their stance. Try to remain calm and state your stance and your reasoning if you can. Also stating where in the world you are a citizen might help others understand your stance (i.e. Australia, New Zealand, Germany, France, etc)

also if you have any special qualifications for your opinion, such as if you are a lawyer, or a judge, or a victim of some horrible crime, or a member of Amnesty International, etc.

my own views on death penalty.....and believe me, my views don't make sense to me either......

but 1. I am pro death penalty for certain crimes, and our state of Texas has the death penalty and we use it frequently.
now....here is the odd part, my other views......I am "pro life" or anti abortion except in rare cases, .....I am also a Christian, whose teachings prohibit murder etc. I am also a veteran and am pro killing on the battlefield in times of war/conflict, where it is sanctioned by the government/ chain of command.

I am also pro Doctor assisted suicide!

Therefore I have varied views on "death", depending on the issue. I can not really explain all the apparent contradictions but those are my honest views, I have zero special knowledge, am no lawyer or such, I live in USA in Texas where the death penalty is done by lethal injection at Huntsville State prison by the State of Texas.

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^^^^^^
Honestly i am pro death penalty for certain crimes too,like child abuse,rape,murder,terrorism etc. Even more after my military service cause i did my military service at a jail & i was writing list of prisoners to computer with their crimes.

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I'm pro use of force, when necessary, which means LEOs wields a higher power, than a judge, but only in the imminent defense of one self or others. For me there's nothing imminent about a prisoner strapped to a gurney or a pole, so if you manage to capture a murderous bastard alive, you have to try him/her in a court of law and the only sanction is denial of freedom, not life. It's not so much, that I think murderous bastards deserve to live, but rather that I want those rare innocent bastards to survive a miscarriage of justice long enough to get exonerated and set free.

As for abortion, I believe it's a legal and ethical medical practice, that should be available to everyone, not only wealthy mistresses of politicians, who can afford to get flown out of state in a private jet or taken care of by the most discrete doctors at the best hospitals, but also teenage girls, who find themselves in unfortunate circumstances. Rather than forcing a teenage girl to hatch an unwanted child for nine months and bear the cost and burden of a new life for the rest of her life, I would rather demand something equally silly: To register all male DNA and apprehend and arrest all runaway dads and charge them with dereliction of duty and sentence them to thirty years of hard labor. This is of course an impossible task, but I find it no more absurd, than to deny women the right's to make decisions concerning their own bodies, at least during the initial trimester. If you're going to force the responsibility of a new life upon a teenage girl or any other women for that matter, in my opinion, you have to present equal harsh punishment on their male counterparts and child support is a laughable bribe compared to an unwanted nine month pregnancy, birth and the personal and financial cost of taking care of an infant/child/youth 24/7.

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I am very much anti-death penalty for unborn babies. I realize that for nine months or so two separate lives are connected, but they are just that, two separate lives each deserving it's own right to life. Arbitrary political decisions on when it becomes a defensible human life are quite curious. For those of you who would peg me as a Bible thumper think again. I haven't been to Church in years, although I do have very strong spiritual beliefs they are not particularly mainstream. For me, it's simple biology and the respect of innocent human life.. As far as the death penalty for people who have committed heinous crimes, I think there must be a mechanism to prove guilt beyond ALL doubt and if that is done then yes.

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As for abortion, I believe it's a legal and ethical medical practice, that should be available to everyone, not only wealthy mistresses of politicians, who can afford to get flown out of state in a private jet or taken care of by the most discrete doctors at the best hospitals

There are no unwanted pregnancies in modern times where all kinds of inexpensive methods of birth control exists. There are wanted pregnancies and pregnancies caused by negligence.

Hence I think they should at least have to pay for their own negligence.

Also, abortions are not that expensive. If a teen can't pay for it herself, she should consult her parents. Little bit of shame is good, it prevents such stupid decisions in future.

EDIT: Also 2, because she has this power to opt out of parenthood, a man should also have that option. Meaning, no child support.

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There are no unwanted pregnancies in modern times where all kinds of inexpensive methods of birth control exists. There are wanted pregnancies and pregnancies caused by negligence. Hence I think they should at least have to pay for their own negligence.Also, abortions are not that expensive. If a teen can't pay for it herself, she should consult her parents. Little bit of shame is good, it prevents such stupid decisions in future.

EDIT: Also 2, because she has this power to opt out of parenthood, a man should also have that option. Meaning, no child support.

I'm not here to change my opinion or your's, but before we discuss my opinions, I'd rather hear your own opinion on the death penalty and abortion first.

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I'm not here to change my opinion or your's, but before we discuss my opinions, I'd rather hear your own opinion on the death penalty and abortion first.

I think life imprisonment is better punishment than death penalty.

As for abortion, I thought my view came out of my comment, but anyway: ok to the extend as deemed by medical professionals, as long as it's not paid by the public. Except in cases where crime is involved.

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A full life sentence is probably a harder penalty to serve - it's certainly longer - and therefore acts as a better deterrent, but the death penalty saves money, which could then be pumped into the health service to save people who are more deserving of it.

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I'm anti death penalty. I don't care much for the well being of murderers and I don't have an issue with people getting killed as a immediate result of their wrongdoing - i.e. caught in the act and shot by police. I think however once someone is in custody it's unethical to intentionally harm or kill them and to dress it up as justice makes it somewhat perverse from my point of view.
There's also a big issue with the possibilities of abuse this opens up - it's a back-door to kill off people for political reasons for example - and I suspect that's exactly the reason some politicians in Turkey have in mind when they demand the capital punishment to be allowed.
Add to that the fact that our justice systems aren't free of mistakes. I'm not religious, so I don't believe in second chances like anyone killed wrongly will be fine in the afterlife or reborn or whatever. To me nothing is as ultimate as taking someone's life - of all the bad things you could do to someone, taking his life (against his will) is the worst. So to me the potential for abuse, mistakes and the general idea of running a well oiled system for murdering undesirable people are a big enough turn-off to say I'd rather we didn't.

I'm pro assisted suicide in cases where people can give their consent and are suffering. In other cases I'm not in favor of official support due to again potential for abuse. Also I think able bodied people who want to commit suicide should be getting psychological help. I think everyone can and should decide for themselves when to end their life, but I also feel like especially young people who do it, have done it in the spur of the moment and out of issues that could have been overcome.

I'm pro legal option for abortion. An early fetus has no personality or cognitive functions, so I don't consider it anywhere near the ballpark of taking the life of a human after birth. You don't destroy a unique personality, just a unique genetic composition and some biological tissue developed from it. A fetus could become a fully developed human eventually, but so could any fertilized egg and those get regularly flushed down the toilet during period. It's up to medical science to establish a safe time-frame for ethical abortion. That said, preventing conception in the first place is much better than abortion. "Pro-life" people shouldn't be fighting for taking away women's right to do an abortion - they should fight for proper sex-ed and increased awareness for contraceptives to lower the need for abortions. That approach would be more constructive and a win-win for everyone.